Julian Assange’s Arrest Warrant Is Again Upheld by U.K. Judge

The WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange appearing at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London last May.

Matt Dunham / Associated Press

By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA and ILIANA MAGRA

February 13, 2018

LONDON — A British judge upheld an arrest warrant for Julian Assange for the second time in a week on Tuesday, a significant setback for him after five and a half years of evading the authorities by living in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London.

Before a packed London courtroom, Senior District Judge Emma Arbuthnot rejected the arguments made by Mr. Assange’s lawyer, stating that he was not a prisoner, that his living conditions were nothing like those of a prison, and that he could have as many visitors as he liked. In fact, she said, he could — and should — walk free at any time to meet his legal fate.

“He is a man who wants to impose his terms on the course of justice,” Judge Arbuthnot said. “He wants justice only when it’s in his favor.”

If the judge had nullified the warrant, Mr. Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, might have left the embassy, but that was far from certain. The United States and British governments have never publicly ruled out the existence of a secret request to extradite him to the United States, where he could face prosecution for publishing classified documents.

“We are surprised,” Mr. Assange said on Twitter. “Judge went well outside what the parties presented in court. This seems to have led to many factual errors in the judgment.”

On Feb. 6, Judge Arbuthnot rebuffed a claim by Mr. Assange’s lawyer, Mark Summers, that the warrant was void because it stemmed from a Swedish extradition request that has since been withdrawn.

On Tuesday, she rejected the argument that the warrant was contrary to the public interest, saying that Mr. Assange’s “failure to surrender has impeded the court of justice.”

Mr. Summers gave no immediate public response to the judge’s decision.

In the courtroom’s public gallery, which held a large contingent of Mr. Assange’s supporters, many of the judge’s comments met with gasps and murmurs of disapproval. Afterward, several of his allies cited a 2016 ruling by a United Nations human rights panel, stating that Mr. Assange was the victim of arbitrary detention.

“I think it was appalling that the judge was disrespecting the decision of the U.N. working group,” said Susan Gianstefani, 50, referring to the panel. “Julian Assange is being harassed because of WikiLeaks.”

Emily Butlin, 47, said the judge “spoke as a representative of the U.K. government, assisting government in their work instead of representing justice.”

Judge Arbuthnot dismissed the United Nations group’s finding as ill informed. The British authorities have said in the past that Mr. Assange is in self-imposed isolation, not detention.

In 2016, it published emails, hacked by Russian intelligence, that were damaging to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Mike Pompeo, the C.I.A. director, has said that WikiLeaks acts “like a hostile intelligence service.”

Mr. Assange’s legal hurdles began in 2011, when Sweden requested that he be extradited there to face accusations that he had sexually assaulted two women. He said that the charges were politically motivated, that he would not get a fair trial there, and that Sweden might turn him over to the United States.

After the British courts rejected his bid to quash the extradition request, Ecuador granted him asylum and he took refuge in the embassy. In doing so, he jumped bail, which resulted in the British arrest warrant.

Mr. Summers argued that Mr. Assange’s fear that Sweden would hand him to the American authorities was reasonable justification for violating his bail conditions. Judge Arbuthnot said there was no evidence to think that would happen.

In the latest bid to quash the warrant, Mr. Summers said that Mr. Assange’s health had suffered from being unable to leave the embassy, and that he lacked exposure to sunlight. Judge Arbuthnot responded that Mr. Assange’s health was adequate — she accepted that he had depression and a bad tooth — and she rejected the claim about sun deprivation, noting that he had spoken to reporters from a sunny balcony at the embassy.